James Gunn
James Gunn | |
|---|---|
| James Gunn (in green), along with his wife, Jenna Fischer, and actor Nathan Fillion, sign autographs at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Convention, 2006 James Gunn (in green), along with his wife, Jenna Fischer, and actor Nathan Fillion, sign autographs at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Convention, 2006 | |
| Born | August 5, 1970 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation | Screenwriter Director Film producer Novelist Actor Musician |
| Nationality | American |
James Gunn (born August 5, 1970, St. Louis, Missouri) is an American writer, film maker, actor, musician and cartoonist.
Biography
Gunn's siblings include actor Sean Gunn, actor and political writer Matt Gunn, producer Patrick Gunn (previously Executive Vice President of Artisan Entertainment) and writer Brian Gunn. James and all of his male siblings attended the same high school, St. Louis University High. Gunn attended Saint Louis University for his B.A. in Theatre. He continued his graduate studies at Columbia University, getting his MFA in Creative Writing. He married television and film actress Jenna Fischer in October 2000, but they announced their separation on September 5 2007.[1]
The character of Charles Gunn from the TV series Angel is named after Charles and Sean Gunn.[2]
Career
Gunn began his film making career with Troma Entertainment, for whom he wrote and co-directed Tromeo and Juliet (1996). After contributing to several other Troma films, Gunn wrote, produced and performed in his own superhero comedy, The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin and featuring Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Joan Hart, Judy Greer and Jamie Kennedy. Kennedy was instrumental in getting the film made, having been shown the script by James' brother Sean. Gunn also lived in Kennedy's guest house while shooting the film.
Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo in 2002. In 2004, he re-wrote George Romero's script for the remake of Dawn of the Dead, but left the project early to work on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, handing his draft off to others, receiving sole credit for the film's screenplay. The same year he also wrote, produced, and appeared in the mockumentary LolliLove, directed by and starring his wife Fischer. His directorial debut was Slither, a comedy horror film which was inspired by classic alien invasion films such as The Thing and particularly Night of the Creeps.[3][4][5] Slither grossed a low $7,802,450 in its theatrical run in the United States and Canada.[6], with a worldwide gross of $12,082,386.[6] The film was considered a "theatrical flop",[7] with its box office performance being substantially less than its total budget of $29.5 million, including marketing costs. The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Slither's performance "might have killed off the horror-comedy genre for the near future."[8] However, the film review website Rotten Tomatoes, which calculates the consensus of critics across the USA, found that "Slither" was generally embraced favorably by critics,[9] with a rating of "84% fresh".[10]
Gunn has also written a novel, The Toy Collector, and wrote another book alongside Troma President Lloyd Kaufman, All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, about his experiences with Kaufman while at Troma. During his college years, he wrote comics for several college newspapers and underground magazines. As a musician, Gunn released one album with his band, The Icons, Mom, We Like It Here on Earth (1994). He has written music for the films The Low Life (1994), as well as Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2.
Partial filmography
- Slither (2006)
- LolliLove (2006)
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
- Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- Tube (2004)
- Scooby-Doo (2002)
- The Specials (2000)
- Tromeo and Juliet (1996)
Bibliography
- All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger with Lloyd Kaufman (1998)
- The Toy Collector (2000)
- Make Your Own Damn Movie: Secrets of a Renegade Director (introduction) (2003)
References
- ^ Office actress Fischer, husband separate (September 2007), Reuters.
- ^ http://smgfan.com/sd_premiere_jg.htm
- ^ http://movies.go.com/slither/r769695/horror
- ^ http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24375
- ^ http://www.metroactive.com/bohemian/04.05.06/slither-0614.html
- ^ a b "Slither (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
- ^ Jason Clark (2006-10-20). "DVD Review - Slither (2006)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
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hollywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/rtawards/movie_2006.php?r=21&mid=1159017&type=w
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slither/
External links
- James Gunn at IMDb
- James Gunn at MySpace
- JamesGunn.com Official Site